‘… and then we held hands’ Board Games at Mox

Last night we headed back up to Mox Boarding House in Bellevue for a game and an ‘Italian Soda’ (more on that bit later…!).

I’m always impressed with how friendly everyone at Mox is, and how there’s always someone keen to reccomend a game to try out. Last night we were looking at co-op games, we ideally wanted to play London Dread, which they did have, but we decided it’s one to play at home so that we could try out the app with the timer and voice actors (playing an app on full volume in the diner didn’t feel very fair on everyone else!!). So we were recommended ‘… and then we held hands’, a two player co-op where you don’t talk to each other… yep, a co-op with no discussion. Interesting concept, and a nice simple gameplay where you have to work together to achieve emotional balance and make it to the middle of the board. We didn’t win… we ended up blocking each other in the centre ring and not being able to move in to the central circle. But it was nice to play a game that felt a bit different, with a surprisingly light feeling theme, despite the description of a couple that have had an argument and are trying to find balance. One of the play situations recommended is that you don’t talk… which I think is an interesting way to play a game, but for me, the discussion, planning and co-op play is one of the reasons I play a game. So not quite the game for me, but great to try something that’s trying something different!

I’d seen online that Mattel were doing a demo of Funemployed, and since I’ve been playing the original Kickstarter version of Funemployed for a few months I was keen to see whether Mattel had made any alterations to the game. The box received a needed graphics update, but gameplay remains as was. We arrived at the end of their 6pm – 8pm slot, so missed seeing whether it had been popular, but as it was just the two of us, it wasn’t really the game for us last night! This is still one of my favourite party games through! I love the gameplay mechanic that you are applying for a job (a very real job) with ridiculous qualifications or skills (really ridiculous, think ‘sexual tyrannosaur’ type qualifications!). I’m not very good at playing games like this though, it involves being very confident and not minding what people think of you, there’s a bit of acting involved… but it’s still a game I’ll pull out at a party and convince everybody to play… whilst I quietly declare myself the interviewer for the first round!

So on to the ‘Italian Soda’… is this something everybody has heard of?! The whole idea of this seems bizarre to me! A couple of weeks ago we had a friend visiting, and ended up in a huge British / American confusion trying to order a soft drink, then realising that it had cream in it? Cream and orange?!! It wasn’t quite that awful here… a sugar free vanilla, soda water and cream drink, with whipped cream on top and ice… still… bizarre… not quite for me! It sort of tasted like milk bottle sweets! Anyway, each to their own!!

It was also great to see a couple of my games now on the shelves at Mox, Cranium Dark, Trivial Pursuit 2000’s and Catchphrase. Can’t wait for the rest of them to start making it there! 🙂 I wonder if they have them in their library…?!

Before we headed out I was sketching PNW inspired games… ‘Don’t get Wet Whale!!’ Keep shouting at him so that he faces you, but if your opponent shouts louder he will spin round to them… at some point he’s going to squirt water, and someone’s going to get wet…!! (More doodles on Instagram )